Referrals and appointment information

If you’ve recently been referred to our hospitals, then we will need to contact you with details of your appointment. If your contact details have changed, please contact us so we can update them.

A greater choice with the e-Referral System

From Wednesday 1 August, patients will be able to choose the place, time and date of their first outpatient appointment.

Under the new NHS e-Referral Service, patients can choose their initial hospital or clinic appointment, book it in the GP surgery at the point of referral, or later at home on the phone or online.

The NHS e-Referral Service (previously known as Choose and Book) is a national electronic referral service that the whole of the NHS is adopting. You can find out more about the service at www.nhs.uk/referrals (opens in a new window).

Using the e-Referral Service at Epsom and St Helier

We’re working hard to make all our services bookable on the e-Referral Service. We will be doing this in a staged way, but by 1 August 2018, you should be able to see all of our services and their available appointments online. You will be able to view your hospital choices and book your first outpatient appointment in a number of ways:

To book your appointment online or via the e-Referral Service appointment line, you will need your unique booking reference number and password. Please contact your GP practice if you do not have this or have lost it. You do not need to see your GP as a member of the practice team should be able to help.

If you have any questions about your appointment, please give us a call. You can find contact details for our services and departments on our Contact us page.

If you are unable to attend

If you are unable to attend your appointment for any reason, you can advise us of a cancellation or rescheduling over the phone by calling the department directly. The phone number should be on your appointment letter or you can find the number in our services. The sooner you let us know that you are unable to make it, the better chance we have to offer the appointment slot to another patient.

If you do need to cancel your appointment, we will offer you an alternative appointment straight away. However, if you cancel your appointment more than once you may be referred back to your GP.

If you do not attend your appointment without cancelling it beforehand you will be referred back to your GP.

Appointment reminders

We operate a telephone reminder service for most appointments. We will try to call you about six days before your appointment to confirm your attendance. If we are unable to get hold of you we will try again at other times to make sure you can still make it.

If you confirm during the reminder call that you are unable to attend you will be contacted again by the booking team to discuss your request within one working day.

You also have the option of opting out of the service if you so wish and you can do this by either contacting the respective service areas or informing the receptionist at your next visit.

Is my treatment confidential?

Yes. Everyone in the NHS has a legal duty to keep any information about you confidential. Your GP will be told of your progress, although you can ask us not to do this.

We also have a legal duty to hold certain information about you. We use this information to care for you, and to monitor the quality of our services.

Apart from these purposes, no information about you will be used in a way that can identify you, unless we ask for your permission. We might use some of the information about you for research and education, but only after all any details which would make it possible to identify you have been removed.

Medical students

Our hospitals are teaching hospitals - this means that some doctors teach medical students during their clinics as well as on the wards. If you do not want other doctors present during your examination please let the receptionist nurse know.